Chuck Stone

A special citation is awarded to the late Chuck Stone for his groundbreaking work as a journalist covering the Civil Rights Movement, his pioneering role as the first Black columnist at the Philadelphia Daily News–later syndicated to nearly 100 publications–and for co-founding the National Association of Black Journalists 50 years ago.

Biography

Charles “Chuck” Stone Jr. was a prolific journalist who promoted diversity and equality during his long career in news reporting.

Stone was born in St. Louis in 1924. He was a Tuskegee Airman in the U.S. Army Air Corps before he went on to attend Wesleyan University. After graduating college, he traveled to Egypt, India and South Africa to help in aid and development projects.

He later settled into journalism, becoming the first black host for PBS’ Black Perspective in News. He went on to become editor of the New York Age, the Afro- American, senior editor of the Philadelphia Daily News, and editor-in-chief of the Chicago Defender. These newspapers were notable news sources created by the Black community.

Stone was very active in bringing diversity into the media. He was the first president of the National Association of Black Journalists. A close friend of Martin Luther King Jr., Stone was very involved in the desegregation movement. He was even offered the position of executive director of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, which he declined for the reason that he did not want his young children subjected to life in the South.

The integrity that Stone brought to his reporting caused him to transcend beyond his role as a journalist into the position of a liaison between the troubled parts of the African-American community and the society which they were at odds. His articles sparked conversation about race, and he gained credibility in the media and with the people.

After a long career of reporting and activism, Stone took his talents and experiences to the classroom. He became a Walter Spearman Professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He won several teaching awards for his classes in censorship and magazine writing. He retired from UNC-CH in 2005. The Chuck Stone Program for Diversity and Education in Media was created in his honor. He contributed sharing with the scholars stories from his illustrious career.

Stone passed away in 2014 at the age of 89. The Chuck Stone Program strives to bring remembrance to his legacy.

-- from the Chuck Stone Program for Diversity in Education and Media at UNC

Winners in Special Citations and Awards

2024

Greg Tate

A special citation for the late writer and critic Greg Tate, whose language – cribbed from literature, academia, popular culture and hip-hop – was as influential as the content of his ideas. His aesthetic, innovations and intellectual originality, particularly in his pioneering hip-hop criticism, continue to influence subsequent generations, especially writers and critics of color.

2022

The Journalists of Ukraine

The Pulitzer Board awards a special citation to the journalists of Ukraine for their courage, endurance, and commitment to truthful reporting during Vladimir Putin’s ruthless invasion of their country and his propaganda war in Russia. Despite bombardment, abductions, occupation, and even deaths in their ranks, they have persisted in their effort to provide an accurate picture of a terrible reality, doing honor to Ukraine and to journalists around the world.

2021

Darnella Frazier

For courageously recording the murder of George Floyd, a video that spurred protests against police brutality around the world, highlighting the crucial role of citizens in journalists' quest for truth and justice.

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2025 Prize Winners

National Reporting

Staff of The Wall Street Journal

For chronicling political and personal shifts of the richest person in the world, Elon Musk, including his turn to conservative politics, his use of legal and illegal drugs and his private conversations with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Local Reporting

Alissa Zhu, Nick Thieme and Jessica Gallagher of The Baltimore Banner and The New York Times

For a compassionate investigative series that captured the breathtaking dimensions of Baltimore’s fentanyl crisis and its disproportionate impact on older Black men, creating a sophisticated statistical model that The Banner shared with other newsrooms.

Commentary

Mosab Abu Toha, contributor, The New Yorker

For essays on the physical and emotional carnage in Gaza that combine deep reporting with the intimacy of memoir to convey the Palestinian experience of more than a year and a half of war with Israel.

Criticism

Alexandra Lange, contributing writer, Bloomberg CityLab

For graceful and genre-expanding writing about public spaces for families, deftly using interviews, observations and analysis to consider the architectural components that allow children and communities to thrive.

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